Central Stags captain Greg Hay will finally make his first appearance of the 2022/23 Domestic cricket season when his team belatedly resumes the Plunket Shield tomorrow Sunday March 5.

The well positioned Stags are away to Northern Districts in Round Six of the eight round first-class national championship, at Mount Maunganui's Bay Oval.

The Stags have already thrashed ND once this season, but are coming off four weeks without cricket - after the 10th round of The Ford Trophy, The Ford Trophy Grand Final, and the fifth of round the Plunket Shield that had been due to start in Napier were all called off after Cyclone Gabrielle.

There's now a little catching up to do with the other teams who have meanwhile continued to chalk up points.

The Stags had been sitting in close second on the table behind Canterbury, and now find themselves in third spot. Canterbury is on 71 points after five matches; Wellington Firebirds 53 after five matches; and the Stags on 46 points after just four matches played.

Northern Districts sit one spot behind them on 39 points, one of the trio of teams at the foot of the table to have taken just one outright win so far.

The Stags handed them a heavy defeat at Hay's home ground in Nelson in November.

The veteran Greg Hay says he's looking forward to releasing some pent-up energy as he finally gets back on the park with his team tomorrow.

In October, the Plunket Shield captain and opening batsman broke his forearm when he was hit in the nets, right before the team was due to play its first match of the 2022/23 summer.

After surgery to fix the damage and with a plate now reinforcing his arm, the 92-match veteran had to sit out the entire front half of the season, Tom Bruce taking over the reins for the first four rounds before the team switched over into white-ball mode for the high season.

"Obviously I've had a bit of bad run with a couple of freak injuries this year and last year, and two months without playing,” says Greg.

"Since then, I've had a couple of sporadic outings for Nelson, but I still feel like I've hardly played for a year.

"The upside of that is I'm really excited to be back playing for the Stags again.

"You can lose that freshness by this stage of the season, so I'll have that in my favour. I can put everything into these four weeks. It's a very short season for me, but I'm excited to be in a position to win the Plunket Shield this summer."

Greg is set to become the Stags' third most capped Plunket Shield player tomorrow, moving ahead of Jamie How (92), with the late Mike Shrimpton (97 caps) and Mathew Sinclair (119) the only players to have represented the team in more first-class matches.

The 38-year-old rock with 6,367 first-class runs had been on target to get his 100th Plunket Shield cap for the team before the injury, but you suspect he'd swap that for a trophy in a blink in the format that's regarded as the toughest to win.

"All the guys love the four-day format, and we're ready for a big push,” he says.

After the ND match, the Stags will get to play current leader Canterbury for a second time this summer in the seventh round in Rangiora, in the uneven, eight-round draw.

With a maximum of 20 points available per match from each of the remaining matches, it means the business end effectively starts now, but Hay doesn't want to look too far ahead.

"We've got ND to reckon with first, but yes, it's crucial to be in a good position at this time of the season, or you're chasing your tail a bit.

"Sometimes it can turn out to be awkward as to who you end up playing twice in the season. You want your fate to be in your own hands, so the best scenario is to play other teams who are at the higher end of the table, and we've got that coming up with Canterbury on the menu."

This Sunday's upcoming match will be the first for Central under Aldin Smith in his second stint as Head Coach, following the departure of Rob Walter as South Africa's new men's white-ball coach.

Greg says the pair are used to how each other operates, after Aldin's involvement with the team over the past six seasons and he expects business as usual.

The Stags team is mostly based in Hawke's Bay, and Hay says they will play with those affected by the cyclone still in their thoughts.

'When the power eventually came back after a few days literally in the dark, we learned that, tragically, there were many people who had been far more affected than us,” says Greg.

'It was sobering, and important to our players to get out there with mops and shovels and help our community over the following weeks.

'Now we turn our attention to trying to win this title for them, and I don't think it needs to be said that the impact of the floods will stay with us and the community for a long time.

"The work goes on, and as individuals and team we will continue to reach out and do what we can to help as we all try to get back to normal.”

Free livestreaming and livescores will be available at www.cdcricket.co.nz from 10.30am each day, with the toss at 10am on Sunday.

PLUNKET SHIELD Round Six • 2022/23
NORTHERN DISTRICTS v CENTRAL STAGS
Bay Oval, Mt Maunganui
10.30am • Sunday March 5 to Wednesday March 8 2023

CENTRAL STAGS SQUAD
Greg Hay (c) — Nelson, RH opening batsman
Tom Bruce — Taranaki, RH batsman, off-spin bowler
Doug Bracewell — Hawke's Bay, RH pace allrounder
Josh Clarkson — Nelson, RH pace allrounder
Dane Cleaver (w) — Manawatu, RH wicketkeeper-batsman
Jayden Lennox — Hawke's Bay, LA spin bowler
Curtis Heaphy — Manawatu, RH batsman
Ajaz Patel — Hawke's Bay, LH off-spin bowler
Brett Randell — RH pace allrounder
Brad Schmulian — Hawke's Bay, RH batsman, leg-spin bowler
Ben Smith — Whanganui, RH batsman
Ray Toole — Manawatu, LH pace bowler

Head Coach: Aldin Smith

Contracted players unavailable for selection:
Blair Tickner — Hawke's Bay (BLACKCAPS Test squad)
Will Young — Taranaki (BLACKCAPS Test squad)
Seth Rance — Wairarapa (shoulder injury)
Liam Dudding — Hawke's Bay (forearm injury)
Joey Field — Hawke's Bay (shoulder injury)

Follow the campaign with hashtags:
#plunketshield #lovethestags

NORTHERN DISTRICTS SQUAD
Jeet Raval (c)
Katene Clarke
Kristian Clarke
Henry Cooper
Colin de Grandhomme
Brett Hampton
Fergus Lellman
Bharat Popli
Tim Pringle
Mitch Santner
Tim Seifert
Joe Walker